Do you know what you, us, and crocodiles have in common? All three of us experience stress and get bogged down by it from time to time. Yup, if the planet’s most evolved creature can feel stress, so can a crocodile, can’t it?
The problem with stress is that we don’t necessarily realise we're swimming in it. This could be because most of us can’t pinpoint all the specifics of what it feels like. We know hunger, pain, affection, but what about stress?
Stress, in many cases, is an unsettling feeling that speeds up your heartbeat, tenses your muscles, and makes you sweat. These are heightened symptoms which you feel mostly in high stakes situations, but stress mostly creeps up on you as mild doses of tension, worry, irritability, grogginess, heaviness, lack of enthusiasm, and other such symptoms.
Similar to hunger, pain, and other physiological responses, stress also serves a purpose. It ensures alertness, quick action, and survival against threats. This makes it useful in situations like accidents, animal attacks, bar fights, giving snarky comebacks, or making excuses when your parents catch you drunk. Unlike these examples, which evolved from ancient threats to modern day dreads, the human body’s response to such situations remains the same - getting stressed.
Is this a problem? Well, yes and no, both.
No, because stress pushes you to take action, which is a good thing. And, yes, because it only drives simple actions and restricts the cognitive ones - fight or flight, which is not relevant in day to day life.
Your body keeps producing stress in response to certain stimuli, and this becomes a problem because experiencing frequent or regular stress is bad for your health and wellbeing.
Stress was a response against threat to survival. Today, it can get triggered by multiple things; stress about studying a disliked subject, passing an exam, getting a job, family responsibilities, financial and career growth, job security, relationships, social status, keeping up with peers, global environment, local culture, national politics. The list goes on.
This results in a certain level of stress always being present in your system.
Should you let this be as is? Of course not! Unless you want a taste of depression, fatigue, loneliness, impaired personal and social life, and other fun cocktails.
Here, at Goodwave Foundation, we are all about building a healthy and happy life, and managing stress is an essential part of this endeavour.
So, how to manage stress? We’re glad you asked!
You can manage only what you can identify.
Identify the thoughts and situations which trigger your stress response. This can include situations like missing a flight, environments like a toxic workplace, events like a traffic jam, or people who are difficult. Then, you try to plan and organise various aspects of your life to avoid these instances.
But stress is not completely avoidable.
So, when you encounter it, you manage it by taking long deep breaths, doing physical movements like walking or pushups, and calming your mind with some meditative chants. If these common techniques fall short, you can even invent your own calming techniques. Once you are composed, you can take action to resolve the situation.
Dealing with situational stress is empowering. But building long-term resilience is liberating.
Pursue resilience by sleeping for 8 to 9 hours, eating healthy food, exercising daily, organising finances, relationships, work, hobbies, leisure, and other aspects of your life, picking up a passion project, journaling regularly, and spending meaningful time with loved ones.
These lifestyle practices not only reduce stress but also ensure an enriched life.
> Remember, external stimuli are not in your control, but how you respond to it is.
> Action is the only antidote.
> Learn to be okay with uncertainty; do your best and leave the rest.
You, us, and our crocodile friends, all of us experience stress in different ways, and our solutions to combat it would also be different. It is possible our approach doesn’t completely alleviate stress, but practising these healthy habits will definitely add to your wellbeing as well as help you live with and navigate stress better.
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